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For centuries now science has unlocked ever more mysteries, but could we one day run out of discoveries or abandon further research?

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Credits:
Post Science Civilizations.
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur.
Episode 361, September 22, 2022
Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur.

Written by:
Isaac Arthur.

Editors:

A major upgrade of the Linac Coherent Light Source has been completed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, California. This latest version is 8,000 times faster and 10,000 times brighter, enabling scientists to observe molecular events in unprecedented detail.

Credit: Greg Stewart.

The newly upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at California’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has successfully produced its first X-rays, and researchers around the world are lined up to kick off an ambitious science program. The upgrade, called LCLS-II, now makes it the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, surpassing the European XFEL near Hamburg, Germany.

With future observations and as more time passes — both from new data and from data that’s still being analyzed and prepared by this collaboration — we may obtain the most precise and accurate measurement for the expansion rate of the Universe using the cosmic distance ladder method of all-time.

This triply-imaged supernova was not named “Supernova H0pe” in vain, as it really does give us hope that the answer to today’s greatest cosmic puzzle may indeed be written on the face of the Universe. With JWST going strong, we may have already found the galaxy cluster, and the gravitationally lensed system, that will resolve what’s been puzzling astronomers for the entirety of the 21st century.